Last weekend, I drove 45 minutes outside of the city to visit the camel racetrack by Al Ain. Currently, there are approximately 14,000 active racing camels in the UAE. The local Emirati population and the highest levels of society belong to the Dubai Camel Racing Club. Camel jockeys in the past were young boys between the ages of 6 and 7, which obviously incited complaints from the international community. So now, there are little robotic jockeys in the form of colored boxes that sit atop the camels "holding" whips that operate at regular intervals! I also managed to see the camel market, where the owners buy their camel supplies (pictured here are workers uncovering a mountain of greens for the camels to eat.) The races only take place at 7:30am on weekends...but it is worth getting up early for such an amazing sight!
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